vuyo viwe

Emerging from Johannesburg’s new wave of sound healers, vuyo viwe is a 25-year-old flautist, composer and vocalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Freshly-minted in the jazz scene, she has shared the stage with various classical and jazz acts, including Kujenga, Internet Athi, The Brother Moves On, ft. Hymnself and Sisonke Xonti.

Vuyo viwe has had the privilege of performing in celebrated spaces such as YoungBlood, The Chairman, Untitled Basement, Baxter Theatre, The Homecoming Theatre, as well as being a feature in the THAT Tuesday Funk jam session house band. She has since held a 3-day residency at Nirox Sculpture Park under the collective ft. Hymnself, all before her sold-out debut performance as a solo act at Mamakashaka and Friends. Since her September debut, vuyo viwe has graced the Kids Love Jazz and Umanyano Lwe Jazz stages, amongst much-anticipated solo performances.

Vuyo viwe has featured in mixed creative outputs, including recording flute and vocals for Internet Athi’s Wena and Nguwe; supporting Thandi Nqanda’s No Time To Mourn; featuring in BET Africa’s Echoes of Tomorrow documentary and Archive’s Spaces That Feel Like Home campaign. She also composed, performed and recorded the film score for Nomandla Vilakazi’s documentary, Ode to Sara, that has since screened at the Labia Theatre, Iziko Museums of South Africa, The Commons and Raw Film Festival. Vuyo viwe has also curated commissioned tracks for the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation’s A Queer South Africa project, and orchestrated a soundscape inspired by the Namib desert for Raul Jorge Gourgel’s visual installation.

Vuyo viwe’s sound is a mix of South African traditional song form, orchestral folk, with alternative vocal melodies, blending electronic sounds with classical instruments with the rawness of uhadi sensibilities and ngoma time signatures and dissonance.

Rooted in the philosophy of “afroesotericism”, vuyo viwe explores the sonics of Blackness, of Womanness, of resilience, and of an (un)becoming. Vuyo Viwe is an electrifying performer who is masterfully blending ceremony and classical composition, echoing the defiant creativity.